Based on a small dataset of spontaneous speech produced by 6 speakers aged 18-20, this study aims to acoustically describe vowel quality in the Pisan variety of Italian with respect to male-female differences. The Pisan variety is characterized by the lowering of [ɛ] and [ɔ], which is said to be a sociophonetic cue of vernacular speech. The initial aim was to explore whether gender-related sociophonetic differences influence the production of [ɛ] and [ɔ] in young speakers, and which of the two groups (males or females) were more likely to adopt this vernacular feature. However, we did not find consistent evidence of [ɛ] and [ɔ] lowering in the analyzed corpus. Nevertheless, there was variation in the production of [ɛ], which dif- ferentiated the male Pisan speakers from their Florentine counterparts. For this reason, this study also tested an automatic classification system of [ɛ] vowels, which could predict with decent accuracy (77%) the variety to which a specific vowel token belonged.

A pilot sociophonetic study on open-mid vowels uttered by young male and female speakers of the Pisan variety

Claudia Roberta Combei
Primo
;
Ottavia Tordini
2017-01-01

Abstract

Based on a small dataset of spontaneous speech produced by 6 speakers aged 18-20, this study aims to acoustically describe vowel quality in the Pisan variety of Italian with respect to male-female differences. The Pisan variety is characterized by the lowering of [ɛ] and [ɔ], which is said to be a sociophonetic cue of vernacular speech. The initial aim was to explore whether gender-related sociophonetic differences influence the production of [ɛ] and [ɔ] in young speakers, and which of the two groups (males or females) were more likely to adopt this vernacular feature. However, we did not find consistent evidence of [ɛ] and [ɔ] lowering in the analyzed corpus. Nevertheless, there was variation in the production of [ɛ], which dif- ferentiated the male Pisan speakers from their Florentine counterparts. For this reason, this study also tested an automatic classification system of [ɛ] vowels, which could predict with decent accuracy (77%) the variety to which a specific vowel token belonged.
2017
Combei, CLAUDIA ROBERTA; Tordini, Ottavia
File in questo prodotto:
Non ci sono file associati a questo prodotto.

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11568/918676
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact